Hey all...sorry it's been so long since my last post. The honeymoon period is over, so although I might not think something is extremely exciting I need to keep updating because in retrospect most of the stuff I've been up to is fairly exciting. Last weekend was kinda hectic because we hosted our last workshop for the Health Promotion Pilot Program (the same program I made the boobs for). I really thought six hours of class in a row was a long day, but these folks sat through at least eight hours, and it is a testament to the skill of all the people that work for Etta Projects that they were able to keep it interesting for the 16 hours of workshop time. I learned more quechua, and can now successfully say Hola, Como Está...y Estoy bien on top of my three other words. I'll be fluent in a couple of weeks. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but Quechua is hard to pronounce as the sounds seem to come from the back of the tongue. On tuesday I made it Santa Cruz, and oh, oh, oh it is so wonderful to see cafés with outdoor seating. Montero has one coffee shop, and other than that it is all Nestle Instant coffee. I digress, Santa Cruz is a great city. After visiting, my friend's friend in the Hospital (despite suffering from HIV he had his appendix burst...normally a quick fix surgery, the bigotry towards HIV/AIDS patients had him wait 24 hours for the surgery!) we visited the walked from the second ring, through Gringo Strip (only saw one gringo :( ) to the first Ring, and the plaza. Grabbed a stella artois in an irish bar called Irish Bar. A travesty they adopted such a noble name, seeing that they didn't even serve guiness...regardless the beer made the trufi ride back quite smooth. Trufis are cars for hire, which function much like buses in that they drive only from station to station. For 1-2 bs. more you can get somewhere twice as fast as a bus. Back in Montero it was back to the grind. For the first time in my life I successfully drew a giant sized character for a presentation board, as well as I discovered the wonderfully disrespectful music of Calle 13. The key to enjoying this music is the assumption that everything someone might say in spanish has the potential to be a sexual innuendo of some sort. For instance one night me and my house buddies went over to their friends house to make mexican food. We were talking about learning the language and I said something about the difference in tongue usage between spanish and english...their friend without a glance said back, " [the only way you'll ever learn is]... a chupar en la lengua." Lengua in spanish means both language as well as tongue, chupar means to suck...so according to a table full of women, the only way I'll ever learn spanish is to start sucking tongue....
Freakin' bichos man. Damn single celled organisms holed up in my stomache...I've taken medicine to kill them but these bastards are stubborn, so I've changed my game plan. I don't care anymore. I need to eat vegetables, the mangos are ripe (we have three trees in our back courtyard), and there is nothing better than dipping coca on the way out to the campo. If I have minor stomache cramps every other time I eat, then so be it because it's too hard being OCD about everything I eat. I'll just take medicine once a week or so to keep them small. If you have any suggestions in defeating an invisible enemy that doesn't require living in a plastic bubble, please send them my way. For you people wondering about precios, here is the low down.. Beer costs a dollar for a pint at the bar or a large bottle, a package of four oreos costs around 20 cents. I can go eat a really decent meal for 3 bucks, make it 7 dollars for a fun night on the town...I went to a used clothing bizarre where I found a ton of old american t-shirts (great freakin' time) and spent about three bucks for four great shirts...even found a purple one with wolves howling to the moon. Woke up today and the smoke from the Caña fields has cleared so hopefully we'll get to enjoy some clean air before the rain and mosquitos take over in a couple of weeks....Cheers!
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